Friday, August 12, 2016

Polyphony and Chant and Latin at Mass -- at WYD????

No, not every Mass. But at those "in English"....
I don't know about you, but it was at a busy time for me, and I've never paid much mind to World Youth Days, and any time I did happen to turn on EWTN it sounded like a pop concert or a county fair was going on. It can be depressing. And being depressed by Catholic liturgies makes being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh [me] a reason of that hope which is in [me] more difficult, you know?
But I had forgotten reading this last spring.
Fr David Friel, (whom many of you will know from Colloquium,) has a report over at Corpus Christi Watershed to gladden the heart.

It was revolutionary. I am speaking about the music used at the major English-speaking catechesis sessions.... During the days leading up to the main weekend events with the Holy Father, WYD
pilgrims attend morning & afternoon catechesis sessions.... Not surprisingly, one of the largest groups
of pilgrims at every WYD comes from the English-speaking world, so there is typically one very large English catechesis center. Typically, these Masses feature pop concert-style praise &
worship led by an on-stage band. This year, however, the preparations
for these large-scale liturgies were entrusted to the Dominican Liturgical Centre in Kraków.
Fr. Lukasz Misko, OP was invited to serve as Director of Music for the
English-language liturgies, and he, in turn, invited fellow-blogger Christopher Mueller to serve as conductor for all of these liturgies (as he announced here). The result was an experience very different from the norm. Notably, not a single hymn was sung during Mass. Praise
& worship songs were used throughout the day at the arena, before
and after Mass, but no garden variety metrical hymns or songs were sung during Mass, from the Sign of the Cross to the Final Blessing. This, in itself, is revolutionary. During the entrance procession, offertory, communion, and
recessional, a variety of musical forms were used. Most of the music at
these points were responsorial texts written in four parts. A
Gregorian alleluia and the Pater noster were chanted each day,
and the first piece during communion each day was in Gregorian
plainsong. The polyphonic pieces included: Jesu, Rex admirabilis (G.P. Palestrina), Anima Christi (Stefan Stuligrosz), Lift Me Up, O Jesus (Jacek Sykulski), In Te, Domine, speravi (Hans Leo Hassler), Per Crucem Tuam (Piotr Palka), Salve, Mater Misericordiae (arr. Mueller), Adoremus in aeternum (Gregorio Allegri), and Totus tuus (Msgr. Marco Frisina). The Mass setting used each day was the Missa Orientalis by
Jacek Sykulski. This was sung in four parts, and the text
(interestingly for the English-language catechesis center) was in Latin. On the final day of catechesis, Chris and his wife, Constanza, led a
breakout session entitled: “How to Promote Polyphony and Chant at Your
Parish.” For many of the pilgrims, this was their first experience of
chant and polyphony. One hopes that some of them have been energized to
learn more and to bring the music of the Church back to their parishes....This sea change is not insignificant. It means that the project of
advocating truly sacred music within the present liturgical movement is
bearing practical fruit. Even three years ago, at WYD 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, no one would have expected what transpired at the Mercy Centre in Kraków. That the Dominican Liturgical Centre was placed in charge of the
English-language liturgies is an enormously important step. That
Christopher Mueller was selected to serve as conductor is equally
important. These surprising choices would not have been possible some
years ago. What graced decisions they turned out to be!

Read the rest over there. Me, I'm going to go see what I can scare up on Youtube, etc.Reason for our hope!

About the Chant Café

Catholic liturgical music is serious, solemn, transcendent, but Catholic musicians are never more fun and inspiring than when they are talking about what they love most. This is what happens at sacred music events around the world: the social and intellectual are critically important elements. The musicians (and music enthusiasts) at the Chant Café, a project of the Church Music Association of America, bring that sense of life and love to the digital world. As St. Augustine said, "Cantare amantis est."

Opinions expressed on the site are those of the respective writers.All content at the Chant Café is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, so please reproduce in sæcula sæculorum.